How-To Geek

Once a week we round up some of the emails we’ve answered and share the solutions with the rest of you; this week we’re looking at overheating laptops, upgrading to a bigger HDD, and grabbing ringtones from YouTube videos.

How Can I Cool My Laptop?

Dear How-To Geek,

My year old HP laptop has become scorching hot to the touch. I haven’t had any heat-related shut downs yet but given how much hotter it feels than it did even six months ago it seems like one must be around the corner. What can I do? Help!

Sincerely,

Hot Pants in Hanover

Dear Hot Pants,

Although there can be all sorts of less-than-obvious sources of laptop overheating, by far the most common is simply dust and debris in the intake/outtake/fan assembly. We have a step-by-step guide to opening up and cleaning a laptop here—the guide also includes tips on cooling your laptop with accessories like fan pads. Don’t worry if the diagrams in the guide don’t look like your specific laptop model, searching for images of your laptop using the model number as a keyword and “take down” or “service” should yield pictures or even guides focused on taking apart and servicing the particular model you have. Don’t neglect to check out posts on computer forums if they turn up in the search results, many times you find specialized instructions and photosets on computer forums devoted to particular laptop models/brands.

How Can I Upgrade to a Bigger Hard Drive?

Dear How-To Geek,

I’m happy with my computer… I just need a bigger hard drive. How can I swap out the current HDD for a bigger model without interrupting my digital life too severely? I’m running Windows for what it’s worth.

Sincerely,

Big Disk Dreaming in Detroit

Dear Big Disk,

There are several ways you can go about cloning your old HDD onto your new one. The easiest way is to boot down your computer, install the new disk in the computer case right along with the old one. You can then approach it one of two ways. You can use an open-source Clonezilla LiveCD (check out our guide here) or you can use the free application EASEUS Partition Master Home Edition—we use it in our SSD cloning guide here. Although Clonezilla is pretty easy to use and our guide is really thorough, if you want a simple Windows-based solution that lets you run an app in Windows, reboot, and enjoy a new disk, EASEUS Partition Master Home Edition would be your first choice.

How Can I Rip Ringtones From YouTube Videos?

Dear How-To Geek,

I find so many neat video clips on YouTube with audio I’d love to turn into a ringtone… everything from old Sci-Fi sound effect loops to new songs. Is there an easy way to snag them and use them as ring tones on my Android phone?

Jason Fitzpatrick is warranty-voiding DIYer and all around geek. When he's not documenting mods and hacks he's doing his best to make sure a generation of college students graduate knowing they should put their pants on one leg at a time and go on to greatness, just like Bruce Dickinson. You can follow him on Google+ if you'd like.

Comments (9)

Not all computers of a certain vintage *can* be upgraded to a larger disk drive. I was all excited when my disk went belly up, as i had been fairly diligent in my backups. It was going to be an easy job. 500GB. Yeah, i was going to be really happy, until i found out that the BIOS will only support something like 136GB. Maybe there’s a BIOS upgrade i haven’t found yet, but check out the maximum address-ability of your BIOS *before* you go out and spring for your new 3TB superdisk!

Make zine has had articles about “rolling your own ring tones”. Their sight also has a fairly active blog. Specific questions may be answered there. You might also look at their sister sigh indestructibles.com. Step by step instructions may already exist there.